Acute pain is a common reason for summoning emergency medical services (EMS). Yet in several countries the law restricts opioid-based analgesia administration to physicians. Telemedical support of paramedics is a novel approach to enable timely treatment under the guidance of a physician. In this retrospective observational study, conducted in the EMS of Aachen, Germany, the analgesic quality and occurrence of adverse events were compared between telemedically-supported paramedics (July-December, 2014) and a historical control group (conventional on-scene EMS physicians; January-March, 2014). Inclusion criteria: pain (initial numerical rating scale (NRS) ≥5) and/or performed analgesia. Telemedically-assisted analgesia was performed in 149 patients; conventional analgesia in 199 control cases. Teleconsultation vs. control: Initial NRS scores were 8.0 ± 1.5 and 8.1 ± 1.7. Complete NRS documentation was carried out in 140/149 vs. 130/199 cases, p < 0.0001. NRS scores were reduced by 4.94 ± 2.01 and 4.84 ± 2.28 (p = 0.5379), leading to mean NRS scores at emergency room arrival of 3.1 ± 1.7 vs. 3.3 ± 1.9 (p = 0.5229). No severe adverse events occurred in either group. Clinically relevant pain reduction was achieved in both groups. Thus, the concept of remote physician-based telemedically-delegated analgesia by paramedics is effective compared to analgesia by on-scene EMS physicians and safe.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.